“Wanted: Flat for three
twenty-something Palestinian women to rent; Must be in Jewish west Jerusalem and
free from religious bigots and bombers”.

That would be an honest
advertisement if Manal Diab, Sonia and Wafa Khoury wanted to be open about their
recent travails on the top floor of No. 16 Iddo the Prophet Street. But perhaps
their notoriety has already ruined all prospect of finding another place to live
in Jerusalem?

Notoriety must be the wrong
word, but how else can you account for three bombs outside their door in less
than 12 months living on the fringes of what is supposed to be the trendy
yuppiefied district of Musrara, with its fine views of the gilded Dome of the
Rock?

Defying
the conventions of both sides of this divided city, Manal, Sonia and Wafa rented
the flat last summer. It seemed ideal, close to the Old City where Manal works
as a Hebrew language teacher and close to the centre for its shopping and
nightlife.

The
only problem - and it didn't seem one when they signed the contract - was their
neighbours. The narrow street runs between a mostly working-class
Sephardic-Moroccan neighbourhood and the ultra-Othodox Mea Shearim. Two tribes,
little in common with one another except perhaps a hatred of Arabs. Even ones
who dress in the latest stretch-Lycra fashions and who could easily pass for
Israelis themselves. Which Manal, Sonia and Wafa all are - except that they are
Israeli Arabs.

It's a term that Manal
doesn't like - the map on the living room wall of Palestine showing all the
villages which have been erased by Israel since 1948 clearly demonstrates where
loyalties lie - but she and her friends are all passport-bearing Israelis, born
within the 1967 Green Line separating the Jewish state from the Occupied
Territories.

In
any case, right now questions of identity are the least of their worries. Their
ordeal began with swastikas daubed on their door and stones hurled at them by
Jewish seminary students from the local yeshiva. But now somebody is trying to
kill them - or at best intimidate them out of their home - and the police don't
seem to be getting anywhere with their investigation.

The third bomb went off on
the night of Israel's big 50th birthday party. It was 12.40 am and because the
city had been ablaze with fire-works all evening Manal wasn't sure what the loud
explosion meant. "I went from my bedroom into the living room, and it was on
fire; I couldn't call the police because the phone was in that room, so I began
screaming for help from my bedroom window. And no one moved. They just watched
me. I kept shouting at them to call the police and eventually they did, but it
was unbelievable how long they took".

The entrance to the flat is
now charred and evil smelling for the third time. Two previous small bombs
exploded outside the door in October and December. The second prompted some
attention because a police explosives expert was injured trying to defuse it.
Jerusalem's rightwing mayor, Ehud Olmert, even came to visit and get his
photograph taken.

"Olmert asked me "Why don't
you go and live in the Arab part of the city?" So I told him "Fine, but fix
everything there first, the buses, the potholed roads, the electricity supply".
We are all very busy, career women who work late, and it's difficult getting
back to the Arab districts where there are no real services, " says
Manal.

There is
another problem too. Career women who want to look cool and sexy, share a flat
and generally run their lives the way they want to without any interference
don't go down a storm in east Jerusalem. The women briefly shared a flat in the
east Jerusalem neighbourhood of Beit Hanina, where they were harassed by men for
flouting Arab tradition and dressing like Western women. The city's western
quarters are more to their taste, even though only a few seriously wealthy
Palestinians choose to live there. Perhaps this also account for the
indifference of the Palestinian media to the bombings, which seems to have
ignored the plight of Manal, Sonia and Wafa. An ad hoc "Committee to Save the
Women" was formed by well-wishers, and a Haifa-based feminist group dispatched a
visiting American PhD candidate in modern Jewish history to move in with the
women as a volunteer security guard.

But, Manal wryly notes, all
the initial enthusiastic offers of help evaporated like so much Jerusalem snow.
"Somebody promised to pay our municipal tax, which we can't afford because we
lost so many days work over this, but it never happened. We are alone with our
suffering; it's the Palestinian fate".

The police put up a video
camera to monitor the flat entrance, but it disappeared a few weeks before the
last bombing and, oddly, a spokesman thought it was still there. "The last thing
I said that night before I went to sleep was "They will bomb us for sure tonight
because it's Independence Day". I'm scared, but they won't break me. This is
giving me more strength", says Manal. "The people who did this are weak who
can't fight in a fair way.

"I just want to talk with
them, to say to them "You want me to leave? Then come and sit with me and
convince me". I believe that I have the right to live wherever I want in this
land, which is everyone's land to share, even if it's not my
country".

After
the second bomb the women started looking for another flat to rent. Not because
they were scared, but because their landlord asked them to. He has given them
their notice, and when the 12-month contract expires at the end of this month
they must move out.

"It is going to be
difficult to find a new place to live in, because so many people have heard
about us now and it makes me very angry because it's as if this is all our
fault", said Manal. Not surprisingly, they have found nothing so far. "We went
to look at another apartment in French Hill (one of east Jerusalem's oldest
Jewish settlements, nowadays home to any liberal university professors and
diplomats) and the landlord seemed terrified of us all the time he was showing
us round.

"It
makes me so mad. I want to shout at people "Why are you scared of some
26-year-old women who are just trying to build their careers. Why?"

During our talk a visiting
New Yorker popped by to offer her condolences. "I read about it and was so
appalled I had to come over and apologise for our so-called brethren," said
Hanna Berman. "I'm modern Orthodox myself, and I think this is outrageous. It's
like the blacks in the fifties in the States or the Nazis. If we do nothing then
we too are responsible". She stalked off into the night promising to give the
local rabbi an earful.

Nomi Bar-Yaacov, an Israeli
human rights lawyer, says the attacks are symptomatic of the growing intolerance
of Israel's religious community. "It's getting worse. If a Jewish woman wore a
miniskirt in the same area she would face the same problem. I have personally
been told that my Jewish blood is worthy of spilling. The combination of being
Palestinian and secular merely doubles the problem for these women".

Manal grew up in the
Galilee, Sonia and Wafa in Nazareth. Living in predominantly Arab regions of
Israel, they never experienced discrimination until they moved to Jerusalem to
study, work and get on. More than 90 per cent of Israeli Arabs live in
segregated all-Arab towns and villages. In April severe rioting broke out in one
village after the army demolished an illegally built home, raising the spectre
of a new intifada, but this time one made in Israel among its disaffected Arab
population. Opposition politicians urged the government to do more to improve
relations.

For
Manal, Sonia and Wafa it may be too late. They are thinking of emigrating. "I'm
Palestinian and I identify with the Palestinian cause, but as a modern woman I
can't live with Arabs," says Sonia. "They are chauvinist, only like blondes and
have totally different mindsets to ours." But she couldn't see herself falling
in love with and marrying a Jewish man either, unless he was staunchly
anti-Zionist.

Until the lease runs out
they have somewhere to live, even if the door and walls are blackened by fire.
"We won't be here much longer, and we don't know where we'll be next, but I'm
still waiting for them to come and bomb me again," says Manal.